Flying machine



March 11, 1930. FINLEY 1,750,097

FLYING MACHINE Filed Oct. 15, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet l I 9% K INVENTOR. gZ7ZZ&%

- BY "6V I I ATTORNEY.

March 11, 1930. T. M. FlNLEY FLYING MACHINE Filed Oct. 13, 1928 2Sheets-Sheet 2 IINVENTOR. ZMFl'E Z63],

ATTORNEY.

Patented Mar. 11, 1930 PATENT OFFICE THOMAS M. FINLEY, OF ST. LOUIS.MISSOURI FLYING MACHINE Application filed October 13, 1928, Serial No.312,341.

The invention relates to improvements in flying machines.

The primary object of the invention is to improve the construction offlying machines by eliminating as far as possible air packs at the frontor contact end of the body of the machine and vacuum resistances aroundthe outer surfaces of the body and at the rear end thereof, all of whichare common to the present types of flying machines.

A further object of the invention is to improve the construction of theflying machine shown and described in Patent No. 1,677 ,962, granted tome July 24;, 1928, and comprising a body provided with a longitudinalchannel or passage open at the bottom and having a tapered substantiallyfunnel shaped entrance provided with a convex outer portion and aconcave inner portion adapted to form vacuums when air is drawn into theentrance, said body being also provided with a tapered rear end curvedlongitudinally to produce a siphoning effect on the exterior of the bodylongitudinally thereof when air is driven through the said channel orpassage.

It is also an object of the invention to improve the construction of theflying machine disclosed in my copending application filed April 30,1928, Serial No. 273,998'which discloses a flying machine body of thecigar shaped typeprovided with a longitudinal tunnel having top, bottomand side walls and provided with a substantially tapered or funnelshaped mouth or entranceofstep-likeformation consisting of inner andouter shoulders and a longitudinal connecting portion and adapted toform suction pockets when air is drawn into the tunnel or passage.

In this form of the invention the rear end of the body is also shaped tocooperate with the funnel to produce the said siphoning effect at therear end. The said shoulders form offsets in the wall ofthe mouth whichconnest the channel wall'or tunnel wall to the outside surface Wall ofthe bedy. These ofi' sets or shoulders which are preferably two innumber are arranged one in advance of the other, the one in advance isthe contact shoulder and the other which is located in rear of thecontact shoulder is the secondary to shoulder. In the said flyingmachines of the patent and application the propellers have been placedimmediately back of the secondary shoulder in such position so that intheir operation of drawing the air to them they would dispose it aroundthe two shoulders, thereby creating a vacuum effect ahead of theshoulders. t

The tests of this arrangement showvery clearly and accurately that thedesired result no is obtained up to a certain speed of the machine, whenit begins to ease off or lessen and is not so good, however, stillgreatly beneficial thereafter. In experimenting with other arrangementsit has been found, first, by advancing the propellers to a location inadvance of the secondary shoulders and in rear of the contact shoulders,and second, by adding to the machines body at the front end thereof acontact shield the desired good 7 0 effects on the secondary shouldermay be preserved up to all speeds While the desired beneficialresults onthe contact shoulder are preserved to speeds far in excess of what areobtained with the original arrangement of 7 the propellers with relationto the said shoulders.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in theconstruction and novel combination and arrangement of parts hereinafterfully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and pointedout in the claims hereto appended, it being understood that variouschanges in the form, proportion and minor details of construction,within the scope of the claims, may be resorted to without departingfrom the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a front elevation of a flying machineconstructed in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view of the same.

Fig. 4 is a rear elevation of the flying machine.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail sectional view of the contact shield takenlongitudinally of the machine.

In the accompanying drawings in which is illustrated the preferredembodiment of the invention the flying machine comprises in itsconstruction a body 1 provided throughout its lower portion with acentral longitudinal channel or passage 2 having a substantially flaringmouth or entrance and exmains ent r ly th oug h body from front end tothe rear end thereof. The

1 is composed of inner and outer walls 3 and 4 connected at their frontends with each other. The inner wall defines the longitud l al channel 9Pa ge a t intervening $Pe9 5 tw e the inn a Outer Walls 8 and 4constitutes the gas chamber and will in practice contain the suipportingframework which may be of any esired construct on a wi e ead ly undeod.-

be bo y is approxim t ly r a g ar in exterior outline and is arched atthe top and ha s ai h e t c l Out id W ll a vbotam w i 6 whi h c nect thin r a .5 outer walls 3 and t at the lower edges thereof at the bottomof the body. The side walls of the channel are straight and vertical andthe top wall is arched transversely as shown and substantiallyconcentric with'the arched 40 top of the body. The flaring mouth or enne 0f h long t a h n l f m a front or outer contact shoulder 8, an inneror secondary shoulder 9 and an intermediate lon itudinal connectingportion 10 extending rorn the outer contact shoulder to the innershoulder. The shoulders may be either approximately plain faces orconvex or concave as may suit the purpose of the desi er. i

body is equipped with a plurality of fnont propellers 11 which may beofany desired number and which are located at the upper, lower andintermediate portions of the channel. The body is also provided at 58the near ortion with a plurality of propellets 12 w ich may be of anydesired number, but which are preferably of the same numher as the frontpropellers and located at the "Pe r, e e a d in erm diate p tions o thes a m a In or r to prevent a front air pack and draw h air in o h t p moh o he channel from points in advance of the contact shoulder and formsuction pockets at both the outer contact shoulder 8- and secondaryshoulder 9 the body 1 is equipped at the front marginal portion withacontact shield 13 presenting an outer surface forming an extension ofthe outer wall 4 of the body and arranged in substantially flushrelation with the arched top and straight sides of the said outer wall 4and projecting a sufiicient distance in advance of the front contactshoulder 8 to cause the air drawn by the front propellers into thetapering or funnel shaped entrance to take substantially the pathindicated by the dotted lines A--B and clear the front contact shoulderand also the secondary shoulder and form suction pockets in the anglesformed by the said shoulders 8 and 9 and the longitudinal connectingportion 10 and the shield 13 which is preferably provided at the rearportion of the inner face with a concave surface 14 curvedlongitudinally of the body as clearly illustrated in Figs. 3 and 5 andextending around the margin of the mouth of the channel and constitutinga bracing wall or member addition to presenting the curved concavesurface at the angle or corner formed by the shoulder 8 and the contactshield.

"The outer portion of the contact shield is straight with thelongitudinal section beyond the curved member or wall 1%} and may be ofany desired length to secure an air path which will cause'the air inpassing from the extreme front edge of the contact shield to clear thefront and secondary shoulders 8 and 9 to remove the air pack and toproduce at the front of the machine a vacuum suck at each of the saidshoulders, The location of the propellers in advance of the rearshoulder ,9 and between the same and the outer or contact shoulderpreserves the vacuum suck or suction )ocket at the shoulder 9 and alsoat the s oulder 8 and enables the propellers to prevent any air pack atthe front of the machine when the same is travel- .ing at high speeds.The air lines occurring adjacent the extreme edges of the shoulderssucks out the air from in front of the shoulders and thereby creates aforward drawing vacuum. This Ivacuum effect occurs at both of theshoulders. This contact shield consists of a thin extension of the outerwall of the body of the machine and the inner curved member 14: which isarranged at an acute angle to the extension of the outer wall andstrengthens and supports the said extension and provides a radiusconnection which will ive to the front contact shoulder the effect o aconcave surface similar to the concave surface shown at the juncture ofthe longitudinal connecting portion 10 and the s nda y Sh u de 9- Therear portion of the body is tapered as shown at 15 and the air passingthrough the tunnel not only produces the vacuum eflfect at the front endof the body, but also produces a siphon effect at the rear end of thebody.

at the rear end over what is considered necessary with the stream lineof the ordinary flying machine of the cigar shaped type and therebygives larger gas space for a given length over that of the ordinarystream line bodies.

This is caused by virtue of the fact that the siphon moving body of airexpelled at the rear of the tunnel draws the air from around the body ofthe machine over the comparatively short slope or tapered portion 15 tothe tunnel air, thereby effectively preventing a vacuum in the immediatewake ofthe machine and at the same time obviating the necessity of along tapering gas space reducing stream line which has a vacuum of greatproportions. The siphon efl'ect at the rear end is no less important tosuccessful flight than is the vacuum effect at the contact end and thecombined effect of the two makes a powerful machine, compact in size,strong in body,

' swift in flight and easy in control because of the fact that such amachine will pivot at the center rather than at the contact end as isthe case with all cigar or stream line shapes.

The body is designed to be equipped with a suitable cabin 16 which ispreferably arranged at the bottom of the body as shown, but a cabin orcabins of any preferred construction may be employed as will be readilyunderstood.

What I claim is 1. In a flying machine, a body having a longitudinal airchannel or passage provided with a flaring mouth of step-like formationforming a plurality of shoulders providing suction pockets, said bodyhaving at the front of the mouth a relatively thin contact shieldprojecting in advance of the body and adapted to cut the air.

2. In a flying machine, a body having a longitudinal air passage orchannel provided with a flaring mouth of step-like formation forming afront contact shoulder and a rear secondary shoulder, said body beingprovided at the marginal edge of the mouth with a forwardly projectingcontact shield adapted to cut the air and forming with the contactshoulder a suction pocket in advance of the said contact shoulder.

3. In a flying machine, a body having a longitudinal air channel orpassage open at the bottom and having top and side walls and providedwith a flaring mouth of step-like formation forming a plurality ofshoulders, said body being provided at the margin of the mouth with aforwardly extending contact shield adapted to cut the air and arrangedto form with the front shoulder a suction pocket located in advance ofthe said. shoulder.

4:. In a flying machine, a body having a longitudinal air channel orpassage provided with a flaring mouth of step-like formation forming afront contact shoulder and a rear secondary shoulder, said body beingprovided at the front contact shoulder with a thin forwardly extendingmarginal contact shield arranged at the top and sides of the body insubstantially the. planes of the said top and sides. 5. In a flyingmachine, a body having a longitudinal air channel or passage providedwith a flaring mouth of step-like formation forming a front contactshoulder and a rear secondary shoulder, said body being provided at thefront contact shoulder with a thin forwardly extending marginal contactshield arranged at the top and sides of the body in substantially theplanes of the said top and sides, and provided at the inner face with aconcave surface and cooperating with the front shoulder to form asuction pocket.

6. In a flying machine, a body having a longitudinal air channel orpassage provided with a flaring mouth of step-like formation forming afront contact shoulder and a rear secondary shoulder, said body beingprovided at the front contact shoulder with a thin forwardly extendingmarginal contact shield arranged at the top and sides of the body insubstantially the planes of the said top and sides, and provided at therear portion of its inner face with a longitudinally curved surfacelocated adjacent to the front shoulder and cooperating therewith to forma suction pocket.

7. In a flying machine, a body having a longitudinal air channel orpassage provided with a flaring mouth of step-like formation forming afront contact shoulder and a rear secondary shoulder, said body beingprovided at the front contact shoulder with a thin forwardly extendingmarginal contact shield arranged at the top and sides of the body insubstantially the planes of the said top and sides, and provided at therear portion ofits inner face with a longitudinally curved surfacelocated adjacent to the front shoulder and cooperating therewith to forma suction pocket, the front or outer portion of the shield beingstraight in longitudinal section.

8. In a flying machine, a body having a longitudinal air channel orpassage provided with a flaring mouth of step-like formation forming afront contact shoulder and a rear secondary shoulder, said body beingprovided at the front shoulder with a thin forwardly extending marginalcontact shield arranged at the top and sides of the body, and apropeller located in the mouth of the channel and arranged between thefront contact shoulder and the said secondary shoulder.

9. In a flying machine, a body having a longitudinal air channel orpassage provided with a flaring mouth of step-like formation forming afront contact shoulder and a rear secondary shoulder, said body beingprovided at the front with a thin forwardly extending marginal contactshield projecting in advance of the front contact shoulder and adaptedto out the air and forming With the front contact shoulder a suctionpocket, and propellers located in the said mouth of the 9 channel andarranged between the front and rear shoulders and cooperating with theshield to form suction pockets at the said shoulders.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature. 1 THOMAS M. FINLEY.

